A Little Spring Veggie Maintenance

 

Although the heavy snow cover prevented weeds from growing this past winter, the warm weather and sunshine has encouraged them.  I put a heavy layer of compost on my raised beds last fall and there is a fresh crop of little weeds coming up around the edges.  The best way to deal with this is to cultivate them out.  While the beds are empty it is easy.  I just rake over the surface, disturbing the roots of the weed seedlings.

I pick out the worst of the uprooted weeds and leave them to fry in the sun before I throw them out.  I go over each bed about once a week until it is planted for the season and then put on a layer of shredded leaves to block out the sun from any seeds that might still be lying in wait.

I planted some carrot seeds today.  It I grow my carrots in potting mix in containers.  I use last year's reclaimed soil and recharge it with a good amount of balanced organic fertilizer.  I finish the container with a layer of worm castings which are really good for seeds to germinate in.  The rich, loose material is easy for them to set roots into.

I water the soil well then sprinkle the carrots seeds on the surface and firm them in to get good contact with the soil.  I put one variety on each half.

Then I sprinkle a quarter inch layer of worm castings over the seeds. 

 It is a gardening trick to place a board over a row of carrot seeds to help keep them moist and dark.  I cut some round pieces of corrugated the size of the pots and held them down with a brick.  The cardboard can get wet and when I am done with it, it can go in the compost pile.  In about a week I will have to start checking under it to see if the seeds are germinating so I can remove the cover.

While we're here let's check on the lettuce and peas I planted last week.  The lettuce is up, but still no sign of the peas.

One of the pretty spring flowers is the myrtle ground cover.  This entire bed of myrtle started as a spade full from my Dad that I planted underneath the plow.  Now we no longer need to mulch this corner, but the myrtle drowned out almost all of the perennials here and I moved them out bit by bit over the years.